I hadn't checked out Conan's new show on TBS, otherwise referred to as basic cable, yet.
Until: The Jeggings Video went viral.
After airing the night before, the video went viral on facebook (that's actually how I saw it). Of course, you can always check it out on YouTube. But I feel like YouTube videos are often unreliable, quality and content-wise. For example: Husky puppy, 15,000,000 views. That should be good and wildly adorable, right? Unfortunately, sometimes it's just better to fight the urge to click, rather than waste any precious time that could have been better wasted elsewhere. This is a Quality vs. Quantity type of issue that will probably haunt YouTube at some point, if not already.
I digress. So I went to the home site, and lo and behold, I could check out interview clips from Conan's previous guests on the show. Highly recommend his interview with Russell Brand, which is an apt way to better understand the British without resorting to imitating their accents.
Conan's online marketing presence is spearheaded under the moniker, "Team Coco". The show's home site landing page features Conan's tweets, facebook page, supplemental video to the previous evening's show, information on the upcoming show, AND a sweepstakes to win "20 air fresheners!" (*as well as a car). The visual layout of all of this content and information is easy to read and scan in an appealing way. Essentially, the show is conveyed true to O'Brien's comedic mantra online.
As far as the mobile sphere, if you have an iPhone, the Conan iAd is great to utilize. It's clear in directing the user to check out content on the actual site with ease, without misleading the user (a misstep for many advertisers). Another late-night host, John Stewart, also had an iAd featured through Audible for his newest book, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race. Longest book title ever.
Stewart's iAd was also advertised as a banner ad on The New York Times mobile app., like Team Coco's. However, Stewart's comes across more so as an advertisement from Audible, uninteresting to browse. In effect, I was in a hurry to close the ad off on my smartphone and get back to the app. content. There was an obvious middleman between John Stewart the TV host/personality and app. users, and in this case it was Audible. That won't necessarily detract users from clicking on the iAd, but it could in portraying an uniform brand identity online and maintaining interest.
Meanwhile, Team Coco! is doing the best it can. Frankly, after airing on TBS, not everyone was going to watch the show right away. TBS just does not have the cable street cred for that. What else do they air? Reruns of The Big Chill from '83? However, once a video goes viral, Coco lovers are much more likely to get up on that landing page. Maybe not watch the whole show, but at least in clips. I did catch the actual show the other night, and I kept meaning to turn it off, but couldn't. Conan is a genuinely funny and the epitome of a classic late-night host. He just needs a little more confidence. Was it embedded in my subconscious to want to watch the show on TV after viewing the Jeggings video online? It's possible. Does watching the show on TBS make it less appealing to TiVo? That's possible too. No offense, TBS.
But if Team Coco keeps hawking Conan, "The Brand", as close to his voice as possible online, they should be in it to win it. One would think.
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